Dallas Area Rapid Transit Points to Green Line as Proof That Infrastructure Is Stimulating

By Robert Wilonsky Thu., Feb. 5 2009 at 3:25 PM

Categories: News

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

The under-construction Fair Park station, part of the new Green Line expansion scheduled to open in September

Dallas Area Rapid Transit today issued a media release that says the 28-mile, $1.8 billion Green Line expansion, scheduled to open in September, "is proving to be the Dallas region's own local economic stimulus program with the creation of more than 2,200 jobs." When contacted by Unfair Park today, DART spokesman Morgan Lyons said that number comes solely from construction jobs related to the construction of the line: "Those are the folks laying the track, literally building the system."

The figure does not include planners or engineers, Lyons says. "With all the talk in Washington about using infrastructure to create good jobs, we're saying, 'Here's a great example of that.'" After the jump is DART's latest video concerning the Green Line expansion -- and the number of jobs officials hope it will create upon completion.

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Only $30B of Our Lord and Savior's package is for infrastructure projects like DART, the rest is for useless social programs that balloon spending and do nothing but keep people in poverty. Change *that* and then I might be impressed, Mister President.
fed up, Please inform yourself. No transit system anywhere in the world "pays for itself" any more than any road, sewer, or water system pays for itself. Transit has not been a profitable proposition since the days before the -- highly subsidized -- automobile. Transit is part of the infrastructure that all governments provide. That one of the reasons we have governments.
You're going to quote the Moonie Times? Ha!
Good to see RoB is back.
Wow. This has really opened my eyes, i can't believe Republicans would lie to us like this. It looks like i'll have to re-evaluate my entire belief syst......wait a second, <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx">what's this</a> - <i>"Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump," "We found that a relapse isn't likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies.</i> Well, Democrats wouldn't gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies.....<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/04/cbo-obama-stimulus-harmful-over-long-haul/">would they</a>? <i>CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.</i> What? You mean to say that useless pork spending and government make work programs will eventually drive the country into the ground? But Democrats said it was all necessary and it would save the country! Democrats wouldn't lie to us...would they?
The rail line will never be self supporting. The taxes will never end for those that pay them forced to pay them.
Hey roadside, how do suppose "private contractors" should take the land? The use of eminent domain to purchase the right of way, extra purchases along the rail all are likely in those figures. As I understand it the base cost for rail is about $1mil/mile. Bridges, intersections and stations, parking and access all add cost. Even "privatized" public funds would be subsidizing large parts of the project.
Bravo, This line really goes a long way toward making the line more useful to navigate about. God, I wish that trolley shit were two yrs further down the line, imagine how that would rank.
Does this mean that when the contractor finishes the project that the government destroyed 2200 jobs?
I don't know how much would've been built anyway or how much was just shifted from other locations, but riding up and down the Red Line from downtown to Plano, one sure notices a lot of development that's currently under construction or that wasn't there before the train started getting built. And at least some of it is development that seems relatively unique (other parts of Plano don't have apartments like those in downtown next to the DART station. Mockingbird Station is more walkable than a lot of other developments, etc.)
Hmmm, 64 million per mile. I bet private business could provide a lot more jobs for that 64 million per mile boondoggle.
Go Mavericks.
yahoo for rail! yahoo for jobs! keep layin' that track, i say.
How many of those 2,200 get to keep those jobs when the construction finishes? Or do we have to keep building rail lines to keep them owrkin?
It's not just construction jobs that get created. Businesses are lining up to develop TOD's (Transit Oriented Developments). The walkable city movement is occurring in every major city in the US, and it's something our city council should be championing as well. As opposed to the old "build a tollway, and hope for big box outlets and tons o' drive through traffic" mentality. That's so 1995.
But Republicans told me that infrastructure spending doesn't create jobs! Republicans wouldn't lie to me would they?